Overview of the tools used by Cashflows to prevent fraud
Cashflows has various ways in which we monitor for potential fraud. These include:
- Address Verification Service (AVS).
- 3-D Secure (3DS).
- Country Blocking.
Address Verification Service checks
The Address Verification Service (AVS) is a fraud-prevention service that banks can subscribe to. This service is generally used in the UK, US, and Canada. AVS uses the address details that a shopper provides to verify that the address registered to the card that they are paying with is valid and matches the address that the bank has on record.
If a shopper’s bank subscribes to AVS, their bank confirms whether the address matches.
The AVS result (as with CVV) is a 3-digit value, indicating the result of checking the three or four-digit card verification values, and the address details supplied during authorisation. Each response digit representing a different check.
The first value is Address, the second is the Postcode and the third is the CVV.
3-D Secure checks
3DS is a component of Strong Customer Authentication (SCA).
3-D Secure is a security layer that enables E-Commerce transactions. It is designed to work seamlessly across various domains and is intended to improve the security of cardholders’ transactions.
As of March 2020, all issuers in the EEA were required to support 3DS version 2.1 and were required to support version 2.2 by September 2020.
3DS is covered in our SCA guide, see here.
Cashflows has two versions of 3DS software running. Versions 1.0 2 and 2.1.0. Version 2.1.0 became a mandatory minimum across the EEA and UK from 14th March 2022.
Country Blocking
Country Blocking controls what you can restrict within a specific country. Such as billing, card origination or a combination. You may find this on Page 20 of the Dispute Management Guide on our website.
There are three levels of country blocking:
System wide – This level is controlled by our own rules on risk across all merchants. All sanctioned countries (under OFAC & Bank of England rules) are automatically blocked on all accounts.
Business level – If the transaction passes the system wide check it moves on to this level. Cashflows use this level to create specific risk country rules for your business.
Profile level – If the transaction is still to be processed after this, this level allows you to create your own country rules.